We report an innovative design approach to develop ultra-broadband power amplifier. This novel approach is an alternative to the traveling wave configuration. Our novel design uses the High-Voltage High-Impedance FET configuration (HIFET) as a building block power device matched to 50Ω for ultra-broadband performance. Consequently, no impedance matching is needed. This impedance-control approach offers the advantages of small size, low cost, and high performance. In this paper, we first present the relationship of the HIFET output power to the DC bias voltage and to the desired device characteristic impedance. We also propose to use a novel push- pull power combiner as a broadband impedance transformer. We have translated this concept to practice. We will present the design and experimental results of a GaAs PHEMT MMIC PA having 22dB gain, 4W output power, and 25% efficiency covering 20MHz to 3,500MHz and realized in a very small die size of 2.30 x 2.27 mm. We also combined 4 packaged dies using a broadband push-pull combiner, and achieved 15W output power with 21dB gain, and 22% efficiency covering a single band from 20MHz to 3,000MHz.
2008MTT-Ezzeddine&Huang.pdf
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